Refrigerator appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a chilled chamber for receipt of food items for storage. In particular, the cabinet can define a fresh food chamber and a freezer chamber. The fresh food chamber can be maintained at a temperature greater than the freezing point of water. Conversely, the freezer chamber can be maintained at a temperature equal to or less than the freezing point of water.
Certain refrigerator appliances also include an ice maker for producing ice. The ice maker can be positioned within the appliances' freezer chamber and direct ice into an ice bucket where it can be stored within the freezer chamber. Such refrigerator appliances can also include a dispensing system for assisting a user with accessing ice produced by the refrigerator appliances' ice maker. Storing ice within a refrigerator appliance's freezer chamber can have certain drawbacks. In particular, certain refrigerator appliances maintain their freezer chambers at temperatures well below the freezing point of water. Ice stored in such conditions can become cloudy and/or hard relative to ice stored at warmer temperatures. Consumers can find such cloudy and/or hard ice undesirable.
As such, a current trend that is increasing in popularity is the desire for “nugget”, or chewable, ice. Such ice is typically stored at a relatively higher than normal temperature such as above 32 degrees Fahrenheit in some cases. For example, such ice may be formed and stored generally within the fresh food chamber, such as in an ice box defined in the door for accessing the fresh food chamber. However, nugget ice has disadvantages. For example, such ice when stored in a container will melt. The melt water may cause the ice to stick together and lead to other undesirable results.
Accordingly, improved refrigerator appliances are desired in the art. In particular, refrigerator appliances which provide improved drainage for melt water would be advantageous.